Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It’s 4 am and I crawl back into bed after another middle-of-the-night run to get pacifiers or drinks to our sick little girls who keep waking up screaming about once or twice every hour. I’m dead tired and I let out a soft sigh. Oufff… Could we please, please have some sleep here now??

I snuggle up under my blanket and start to relax again as my little corner of the world gets warm and cozy once more. I can hear Denise, my wife, breathing softly nearby. She’s actually just a few inches away, but she’s facing away from me and to the best of my knowledge, she’s either sleeping or trying to. I settle down on my own side of the bed and quietly start drifting back to sleep. Then Denise suddenly moves in a little closer and my heart skips a beat as I feel the soft warmth of her body close to mine. I roll over and reach out with one arm, embracing her and pulling her close. Then I snuggle up, bury my face in her hair and inhale deeply.

Mmmmmmmmmm… Now, I’ll admit there are times when I might feel different, but as of right now, I pretty much feel like I’m holding an angel. Well, maybe not an angel, but close enough. Everything about her is soft, warm, sweet-smelling and wonderful.

I’m in Paradise. Or close enough for now.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Maybe we’ll be stressed out and grumpy with each other again for parts of it. It happens. I often wish it didn’t, but it does, and it’s really not all her fault - even though I'll admit that I some times like to pretend it is. But for here and now, I don’t need to worry about any of that stuff. I don’t need to worry about anything at all. As I’m slowly drifting back to sleep, I am happy just lying here holding her close. And no matter what happens later, she’s my wife and I love her. And that’s just not going to change.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Do you believe you can make a difference?
In your life? In someone else’s life? Or in the world at large?

Do you believe you can make a difference?

I’m not going to answer for you. You’ll have to find your own answer, because it won’t have any real value to you unless it’s yours and you do believe it. But I can share my answer with you and my answer is yes, I believe I can make a difference and yes, I believe that the choices I make every day do matter, not only to myself, but to the people around me, to my work and in fact to the whole world that I live in – if only on a very small scale.

I’m not going to dwell on this very much further right now, I’m just going to share a story I once heard on some not-quite-so-silly TV show which I think pretty much says it all:

One fine day, a guy comes walking down to the beach, and he discovers that for some reason, thousands of starfish have been washed ashore. They’re all over the beach, as far as the eye can see, and they’re all just lying there dying in the sun.

Next, he discovers a guy who is walking up and down the beach picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.

“Why do you bother?”, the first guy asks.

“That’s not going to make any difference.”

The other guy just looks at him for a second without saying a word. He bends down, picks up another starfish and throws it back into the sea.

About me

Norwegian DBA (database admin) and technology geek, dormant blogger and generally a nice guy who believes the world is big enough for all of us. Husband to one, father of 4 girls, dog owner, hobby astronomer, car detailer and friend to most people who want it that way. ;-)